Liquid Battery could recharge AN EV in Seconds

Researchers at the University of Glasgow have reportedly developed a ‘hybrid-electric-hydrogen’ flow battery. Based upon the design of a nanoscale battery molecule the system can store energy and release it when required as either electric power or hydrogen gas. Researchers says that when a concentrated liquid containing the nano-molecules is made, the amount of energy it can store increases tenfold.

One potential benefit of this system, they add, is that because the material is a pumpable liquid, electric cars could be ‘recharged’ in roughly the same length of time as petrol cars can be filled up. The old battery liquid would be removed at the same time and recharged ready to be used again.

The approach was designed and developed by Professor Leroy Cronin, Dr Mark Symes, and Dr Jia Jia Chen who say that the technology will help pave the way for the development of new energy storage systems that could be used in electric cars, for the storage of renewable energy, and to develop electric-to-gas energy systems.

“For future renewables to be effective, high capacity and flexible energy storage systems are needed to smooth out the peaks and troughs in supply,” said Professor Cronin. “Our approach will provide a new route to do this electrochemically and could even have application in electric cars where batteries can still take hours to recharge and have limited capacity. Moreover, the very high energy density of our material could increase the range of electric cars, and also increase the resilience of energy storage systems to keep the lights on at times of peak demand.”